Rheostats

[sushikam]

Ok, I've been wondering...do rheostats just lower the temperature of a UTH or can they raise the temperature of one? My UTH only allows the ground temperature to get to about 88 and I'm looking to raise it just a tad to about 90-92. Will a rheostat help with this? Thanks!

 

[acpart]

A rheostat is essentially a dimmer. If you have your UTH on without any rheostat, it will be functioning at 100% power. A rheostat cannot boost power, so it can't operate at more than 100%. The rheostat can only be helpful if the UTH is making the space too hot. As you turn down the rheostat, you're decreasing the amount of power the UTH is putting out. If your UTH isn't making your space hot enough there are several possibilities:
--make sure you're measuring the heat on the floor of the cage rather than in the air above it
--you may have a substrate that isn't conducting the heat well so it's not hot enough on the floor of the tank
--your UTH may be old and not working well
--the ambient (air) temp might be low enough so the UTH can't heat the floor up enough (one of my tanks which is near a window is never warm enough in the winter unless I replace the ceramic tile on the hot side with paper towel

Give us more information about your UTH size and set-up and maybe someone can diagnose your problem and suggest some solutions.

Aliza

 

[sushikam]

I just bought this UTH (zoomed, it's meant for a 5-10 gal tank), and when I measure the temp its on the floor of the tank. The substrate I'm using is some repticarpet. I use a overhead heat lamp during the day, but I don't like having both on as I'm afraid it'll get too hot, so maybe thats where a rheostat would come in handy.

 

[lytlesnake]

I just bought this UTH (zoomed, it's meant for a 5-10 gal tank), and when I measure the temp its on the floor of the tank. The substrate I'm using is some repticarpet. I use a overhead heat lamp during the day, but I don't like having both on as I'm afraid it'll get too hot, so maybe thats where a rheostat would come in handy.

It sounds like you've got the 4 watt RH-7 UTH. An 8 watt will get hotter, but you've got to use a rheostat or it will get too hot. 88 is a pretty good temperature for a leos hot spot IMHO.

 

[rhino43grr]

put aluminum foil on the bottom of the tank covering the uth, it keeps the heat from going out the bottom... (i did it on my tank and it makes about a 3-4 degree difference) i have to keep undoing and redoing the foil to keep it from getting too warm until my thermostat gets here, but once it's here i'll leave the foil up all the time.